Professor Ed Telfeyan with Kim Bowman Jr. and Etan Zaitsu.

Moot Court Team Celebrates Its Best Season Ever

McGeorge celebrated arguably its best season ever in moot court competition during the 2010-11 academic year, bringing home hardware from seven national and international events.

The Sacramento law school's success in intercollegiate competitions dates back to the mid-1970s when it won two Roger J. Traynor titles in a four-year span. The last century's high-water mark for the program came with consecutive national titles (1981-82) in the William C. Jessup International Law tournament. Previous winners in that prestigious competition had included only names such as Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, Texas and Vanderbilt.

A one-two showing in the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition highlighted this year's record-breaking efforts. One McGeorge team won the best brief award in that event, which attracted more than 200 teams, while another McGeorge team took second place in the national finals in which both competed.

"It was a truly remarkable year. I want to thank all the students, and the coaches and professors who worked so hard with them," said Professor Ed Telfeyan, '74, the director of the moot court program. "We are ranked No. 8 in the country in two separate national rating systems, neither of which includes the California-schools-only Traynor competition that we dominated this year."

"There were so many outstanding students on the team," Telfeyan added. "Kim Bowman Jr. and Etan Zaitsu shared our Appellate Advocate of the Year Award, but they would be the first to credit their teammates for individual honors they achieved."